West Hartford's "Reservation" & mascots to be discussed at forum Tuesday.

WEST HARTFORD — The board of education's decision to retire the two high schools' Native American mascots, but keep the team names, the Conard Chieftains and Hall Warriors, is unlikely to end the controversy over whether to abandon the names as offensive and racist.

With numerous Native American names and imagery appropriated throughout West Hartford, including an entire block of streets sometimes referred to by locals as "The Reservation," the issue extends beyond Conard and Hall high schools.

Jennifer Matos, executive director of the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society, said she began thinking about the idea of a townwide discussion of the propriety of using Native American names in October when a speaker at an earlier forum brought up the namesake of King Philip Middle School.

"One person in the audience asked about King Philip School and was offended by somebody in history that maybe did a lot of bad things," Matos said.

King Philip, the English name for Metacomet, the leader of the Wampanoag Indian tribe, fought British expansion in New England in the 17th century. The conflict culminated in King Philip's War, one of several Native American uprisings against colonial settlements.

The middle school, built in the early 1950s, was originally named King Philip Drive School for the roadway that runs through several streets having Native American names.

The Native American debate was the impetus behind a forum scheduled Tuesday called, "What's in a Name? The Controversy of Mascots, Logos, and Cultural Sensitivity."

"It is a larger conversation," Matos said. "We just really wanted to provide a forum where people could talk about it from all different perspectives." Speakers include Liz Devine, a social studies teacher at both Hall and Conard high schools, and Town Historian Tracey Wilson.

But Matos said she also wanted to bring Native American voices to the conversation, as "it's kind of hard to get that side of it, of what does it really mean to a Native person." So also speaking at the event are Christopher Newell, a singer, educator and member of the Passamaquoddy Tribe, and Laurie Lamarre, executive director of the American Indian Institute.

Matos said the historical society has been researching the history of street names and mascots in town. Wilson will share some of that information at Tuesday's event, including the fact that the 1969 Hall High School yearbook's logo appears to be a stylized Roman warrior, very different from later depictions of a Native American with a feathered headdress.

While the school board has reached its compromise, the private Northwest Catholic High School retired its Indian mascot about a year ago. A final decision on how to handle the town's mascot decision has not yet been made.

David Eustis, president of Northwest Catholic, said the school had brought in a marketing consultant to standardize branding, from letterheads to athletic uniforms. But the company came back with a larger concern over whether Indians should continue to be the school's mascot.

"We put the use of the word Indians on hold, so we're not using it externally at all. You will no longer see it on our uniforms, you won't see it on anything that is typed or written or on the website," Eustis said.

The school is in the process of polling alumni to assess their feelings on the mascot, and once those results come in, Eustis said the school will take further steps to determine what the mascot should be.

The Indian head logo and mascot was created in 1961 to honor the Wampanoag Indians, and while sports uniforms and fan apparel used to feature the image, "We've gotten rid of all that. None of that is for sale anymore," Eustis said.

The nearby Wampanoag Country Club still uses an Indian head logo prominently, and Nina Musumeci, director of sales and marketing, said there are no plans to change.

"As of right now, there's never been an issue," Musumeci said. "It's honestly never been an issue for any of our members ... there's no discussion or anything about changing it."

While the Wampanoag name may have been intended as a symbol of honor, the tribe is local to the Cape Cod coastal Massachusetts region, not West Hartford.

Such inconsistencies indicate a fundamental lack of understanding about geography and native culture that's perhaps best demonstrated by "The Reservation," the cluster of streets in the neighborhood around King Philip Drive that are named for a mishmash of Native American names, including Mohawk, Huron, Iroquois, Mohegan, Pontiac, Osage, Pocahontas, Miamis, Tecumseh, Seminole, and Sioux.

The only street name that references a Native American group truly local to the West Hartford region is Sequin, which included the Tunxis, Poquonnuc, Podunk, Wangunk, Machimoodus, Hammonasset and Quinnipiac tribes, according to information from the Connecticut State Library.

The community conversation is scheduled for March 24 at 7 p.m. at the Noah Webster House and West Hartford Historical Society, 227 South Main Street. The event is free and open to the public.